Gravity
by silverrdoe
Summary: A imagining of Paulie and Tori's first encounter.


It started with calculus.

Not a lot of things start with calculus, usually it just ends things, like a will to live, but this started something.

Tori was abysmal with math. Paulie saw her struggle in class, screwing her face up at some of the simplest problems. Her brow furrowed in the nicest way. So, Paulie being Paulie, she scooted her chair next to Tori and conspiratorially whispered, "Just makes you homicidal, doesn't it?" Tori laughed, and with a smile Paulie offered to tutor her. Paulie wasn't, truth be told, very good at math either, but she really just wanted an excuse to be with her alone. Which was why when Tori suggested the library, Paulie insisted on her dorm.

Tori came laden down with books and a general sense of uncertainty. Paulie scared her, and she wasn't sure why. She wasn't disliked in school, just outspoken, wild, and the way she carried herself, so secure, scared Tori. She just didn't know the reason why yet. Tori was, after all, always unsure. Of herself and what she wanted, and Paulie…Paulie seemed to have everything figured out.

Paulie opened her door and ushered Tori inside. "Come in! Ready to derive?" she said with a grin.

"Oh god, never," Tori sighed and Paulie laughed.

"Well, let's see if we can do something about that. C'mon, let's sit on the bed."

Tori paused, clutching her books a little tighter to her chest. "Why don't we sit at the desk..?"

"Oh, I only have one chair. Plus, it's pretty small. And my bed's pretty comfortable. Well okay that's a lie. It is a dorm bed after all." Paulie flopped down on her bed. Tori smiled and cautiously moved to the bed, setting the books down and sitting on the other side. Paulie plopped the book on her lap and inched closer to Tori.

"Alright. So, first off…"

Paulie started running Tori through a couple problems. They went on like this for a while, and Tori eventually eased into the bed, relaxing as time went on. They started laughing more and solving less, eyes drifting from the page to each other. They found themselves in a fit of giggles as Paulie imitated their math teacher's signature commands ("You cry, I kick you out, that simple!"), leaning against each other as they did so. It was when Tori's hand brushed Paulie's thigh that things changed. Paulie let out an involuntary sigh, and Tori yanked her hand back.

"Oh, sorry," she rushed out.

"Don't be," Paulie said with a laugh. "You just…surprised me." Tori looked up nervously into Paulie's eyes. Paulie acted impulse. She didn't know what she was doing really, if Tori was feeling the way she did right now, like there was something burning inside her, or what would happen if Tori didn't respond. But, almost instinctively, like it was something she couldn't avoid, she caught a hold of Tori's hand and guided it back to her thigh. Tori tensed for a second, and the gaze was suddenly electrified. Then Tori did something completely out of her reserved character. She responded. Maybe it was the way that Paulie was looking at her, head slightly tilted, her perfect lips slightly pouted, eyes so inviting. Skin so soft. Or maybe Paulie's energy had sparked something in her, this light that had been hiding within Tori all along, just waiting for something to ignite. Tori slid her hand up Paulie's thigh, and the distance was closed between them.

They became one twisting figure. Lips locked, hands wandering, bodies responding so intensely to the touch. It turned from kiss to Paulie slipping her hand under Tori's shirt, warm breath against each other's necks sending shivers down their spines. And when her fingers inched down from chest to stomach, stomach and downwards, Tori's head thrusting backward with a deep sigh, the books clattered from bed to floor, and they collapsed to the bed, connected by Paulie's hand between Tori's thighs.

They were like magnets, it seemed. The time it had taken for them to kiss had been so short. It was inevitable. Paulie seemed to have known that. It was gravity, a force too strong for them to resist or ignore.

They had been fate, all along. Two magnets drifting and their meeting meant instant attraction. And that was why it hurt so much when they were pulled apart. It was a violation of nature, forces out of their control. And when they split, they still felt the pull, desperately tugging at them. Being apart…nothing was more unnatural. It wasn't just love, it was gravitation.

And how the fuck can you ignore gravity?


End file.
